Day 12 - Tue 8 Jun 10

The sun had not yet risen as we motored out of the channel to the southwest. Unlike the forecast, the wind was out of the west, our direction of travel (no surprise). Motoring was the only option for over nine straight hours, but there were brief times that wind variations let us put up a sail. I did not run the engine at more than 50% of full RPM to conserve fuel, but we still made 5.1 to 5.9 kts depending on the current conditions, which did vary along our track. I made sure the bottom was clean and the prop was smooth at the previous anchorage.

We left Key West with 25 gals in our fuel tank and two 5-gal jugs of diesel. We can motor all the way to the Dry Tortugas and then home (over 240 nm) with the fuel we have, but I am sure hoping that when we choose our day to come home there is some wind to help us along. This is supposed to be a sailboat with an auxiliary engine, but on this cruise it is a motorboat with auxiliary sails.

The day was really pretty glorious in that the water took on gorgeous shades of blue, varying with the depths, and there were clear blue skies for the most part, with seas less than 1 ft much of the time. This section of water has some depths up to 80 ft, but also some small sandy shoals of about 12 ft. It is a surreal experience to be completely out of sight of land, and usually other boats, and be cruising in less than 20 ft of water. Come to think of it, much of the Bahama Bank is like that, too.

I trolled several heavy shiny fishing lures that I had been given by my stepdad many years ago. Three of them got a strike and all three were carried away by the fish, or whatever caused the reel to start spinning. We boated no fish, but at least we had three exciting moments as we quickly leapt to action, slowing the boat and turning so I could retrieve the line without the boat speed affecting us.

Diane won the bet as to the time we would first spy the fort on Garden Key. At 1405, she was late by five minutes, while my guess was for 1430. It is really great to have your landfall in sight, but we have learned that actually getting there takes a long while at only 5+ kts.

Fortunately, the channel east of the fort was open and that saved 15 minutes off our approach. We had seen through the binoculars that a large vessel was anchored there, but we didn't realize the magnitude of the problem until we entered the anchorage and saw that of high percentage of the useable space was taken by a National Park Service vessel of some 100 ft in length. We circled for five minutes assessing the situation when Diane noted that one sailboat was weighing anchor. We circled close aboard and asked if they were leaving; their affirmative answer solved our problem. We were able to set the hook in 15 ft of pure sand and it held great.

I set about my usual post-anchoring tasks, as did Diane, and soon we were relaxing. At that time, a small boat from the National Park Service boat came by attempting to speak with each of the boat operators. Diane quipped that they were informing boaters of an approaching hurricane or oil slick, but they were trying to gather information on some people who were camping outside the fort and left in a 30 ft boat and never came back, leaving all their gear there. It is very strange, indeed. [We found out later that they needed something back at Key West, so they took their boat over, stayed at a hotel, and then came back two days later. In the meantime, a search and rescue operation had been initiated.]

As I surveyed the anchorage, I noted a sailboat with a name and shape I thought I recognized. Sure enough, it was my buddy on New Hope from Coco Plum, just outside Marathon in the keys. I dinghied over to say hello and we and his buddy chatted a while. We made plans to go over to Loggerhead Key to snorkel tomorrow.

Back at Diva Di, we sautéed some canned crab, prepared some rice pilaf, and had more of the fresh cole slaw we made the other night. It was a pretty great meal; Diane has done a great job of provisioning for our cruise, as usual. Breakfasts are cereal and milk for me and special fruit bread and butter for her. Lunches vary from dinner leftovers to nice deli sandwiches. Snacks usually include fruit and pretzels.

I should note that now we are in an anchorage where there is little tidal current. That is significant because our boat will swing on the anchor and face the wind where our wind scoop will funnel whatever breeze there is through the boat. In a strong tidal current situation, the boat will lie mostly with the current flow, irrespective of the wind, which often leaves you with little air flow. Hopefully, our present situation will give us a comfortable stay here.

Clyde spent some quality time topside with us as the cooling breeze and calm anchorage provided just the comfort we were craving. It was barely dark when we crawled into the forward berth and slept soundly all night.